Reborn of Grimm: Reap and Sow
by Scribble01
Summary: Ruby Rose was a prodigy. She'd gotten into Beacon early, became one of the best students Beacon Academy had, and led the best freshman team, RWBY, Beacon had seen in a long time. Then she was betrayed. Beacon had turned against her; they tried to kill her. Waking up a year later filled with Grimm blood, she isn't sure what to do. Better pick up where she left off: with White Fang.
1. Prologue

Prologue -

* * *

She was being dragged.

Ruby Rose was aware of this fact and only this fact. At least for a few feet. It was then that the pain began to assault her nerves, causing her to tighten her eyes and able to do nothing else. Her throat was parched and her muscles were clenched. Without trying, Ruby knew she couldn't voice any of the searing pain that erupted along her nerves with every jostle and sway of her body

Blearily, silver eyes tried to open but immediately shut closed when the blinding white filled her vision. When she tried to open them again, her eyes could only take in the blinding sun filtered through the branches of trees as large as a building before her silver orbs shut themselves against the light again. Though in pain she'd never felt before in all her years of fighting and training, the swaying gently rocked Ruby to sleep.

* * *

She wasn't moving the next time she opened her eyes.

It took a few seconds to adjust to the soft light of the broken moon to the pitch black darkness behind her eyelids. The trees reflected the moon's light, giving her almost nothing to work with besides 'woods'. She was alone, not hearing anything that would suggest that anyone was near her.

The moment she tried to move, the full ache that had been on the precipice if pain had immediately become mind numbing pain. Ruby was aware of every slash, gash, gouge, scrape, bite, and bruise that covered nearly every inch of her body. The slash across her leg that was so close to her Achilles heel; the bite that tore at her shoulder; the long gashes that spread gash down her back, close together like claws; all marks of the Grimm.

Ruby struggled to move harder than before, her frantic mind in pain and panic. She could barely remember the dozens of piles of Grimm she'd left in her wake. She could barely remember the dozens upon dozens of Grimm that surrounded her afterwards. Remembering the Grimm made Ruby remember Crescent Rose, her sniper/scythe she had built a few years prior at Signal Academy, under the supervision of her Uncle Qrow.

Ruby tried to turn to move, desperately searching for her sweetheart. Crescent Rose was more than just a weapon; the scythe was an extension of herself. Ruby couldn't lose it. Not after everything that had happened.

A flash of red in the corner of her eye made muscles scream, plead, fired Ruby to stop moving. But the only thing Ruby's mind could focus on was Crescent Rose. Even as her muscles stretched and she reopened the slightly healing wounds, spilling her blood onto the cold, hard ground, she still moved.

Crescent Rose was unfurled, glinting in the moonlight in all its deadly glory. Though Ruby still considered the scythe to be the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, she could also see the wear her fight against the Grimm had caused the weapon. Her blade was broken, in jagged pieces despite being infused with as much Dust legally allowed for a minor and student and sharpened to its fullest extent. Pieces of Crescent Rose's shaft were gone, most likely shaken loose when Ruby had used it to block too many times. Crescent Rose's scope was gone, though Ruby had no idea how.

Her most prized possession, somehow with her. She tried to reach for it, crying out in frustration and pain as the blood her body cherished poured out onto the cold ground below. The wind blew by gently, swaying her hand as her muscles gave out and her mind shut down.

Ruby Rose's arm gave out, her fingers just shy of the shaft, black smoke rising from her open wounds.

* * *

Snow.

Ruby opened her eyes to snow as she was dragged through the woods by her hood. The underbrush tore at her already torn clothing, tearing at the seams as if trying to keep her with the blackened trees that looked dead and burned. Her leg was numb, the snow burning and cooling her wound at the same time.

Her fingertips dragged lightly against the snow. Her hands were scraped and rubbed raw. Her palms left a light trail of blood in the white snow. Did something happen to reopen her wounds?

The dragging continued despite Ruby's weak attempts to move. Her arms were made of led, stiff and unmoving even when Ruby tried with all her minuscule remaining strength. Her head lolled to the side, feeling sleep creeping in on the edges of her consciousness.

She nearly giggled at the hallucination in front of her, delirium and fear making sleep come closer as she overworked her mind: A Beowulf was carrying Crescent Rose right next to Ruby.

* * *

Ruby realized she was choking before she managed open her eyes.

She was submerged in darkness, the last bit of light she could see was slightly above her. Through the murky pitch black depths she was drowning in, she could see a Grimm, standing above the entrance of the dark. Its vibrant red eyes and her silver ones met for a single moment before the monster turned and left her to drown.

The burning pain in her muscles and her lack of air was the only deterrent Ruby had against trying to swim out of the surface. Her wounds opened when she first panicked, blood leaking into the surrounding dark. The water pulled at her limbs, forcing them down deeper. Forcing her to the bottom. Oh, how Ruby wished for Crescent Rose, or better yet, her sister Yang.

Then, first the first time since waking up to find herself being dragged, she remembered: Yang didn't want her.

And neither did Beacon.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! First, I want to apologize for taking so long with this. I had a lot of things planned out and three chapters pre-written in a notebook but I quickly got distracted with work, school, and other fandoms - such as the 100 and different ideas for different fandoms. I tried to get back into the swing of things, only to find that I couldn't. In the back of my mind, I took what idea I had for RoG: Reap and Sow and completely changed it. So my three chapters became completely irrelevant as I revamped the idea in my head.**

 **Secondly: Yes, 'Reborn of Grimm: Reap and Sow' was initially inspired by 'The Red Queen' created by Dravyn LeCrux. The idea of Ruby like that excited me and the writing had me on the edge of my seat and trying to smother my smile so I didn't look crazy while in public. His sequel, 'The Red Queen: Crusades', was the same for me and I can't wait for the third installment. However, RoG is** _ **not**_ **a copy. I like what Dravyn did, he did great with his world building and showing the conflict within Ruby and the other characters, but I wasn't going to copy him. RoG is its own thing, and I refuse to copy anybody, at least knowingly.**

 **Third: I didn't have a pairing in my original idea. But after I revamped my entire idea and storyline in my head somehow, pairings came of it. So this book's endgame is Ruby x Pyrrha. I don't know if it's going to stay like that but that's the end goal for right now. Also: Blake x Sun. Jaune x Yang. Cinder x Emerald. Ren x Nora.**

 **Let's begin. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter One -

* * *

 _Her muscles were screaming. Her Aura was shattered. Cuts, bruises, and blood covered her entire body. Her clothes were destroyed; no more than rags that clung to her body by threads. Her right arm was the broken limb that she cradled close to her stomach, the white bone ripping out of her flesh. Her left eye was closed, blood leaking into it from the cut that went through her eyebrow. Crescent Rose dragged on the ground as Ruby tried to lift it with what little remaining strength she had. Her chin tilted up in defiance, a cracking mask of confidence in place to show that she wasn't lost to despair or beaten just yet._

 _Except she was surrounded. Ursai, Beowolves, Creepers, Nevermores, a Manticore, Deathstalkers, Boarbatusks, and Griffons, all salivating for her blood and flesh. They never stopped coming. For however long she'd been trying to defend herself, they never stopped coming out of the woodwork, demanding her corpse to be ripped apart._

 _Ruby moved slightly forward, barely dodging a Nevermore feather the size of her arm that nearly went through the top of her shoulder but ripped through the skin of her back and took more of her beloved cloak instead. Ruby gasped and stumbled, eyes watching the surrounding Grimm that didn't move except to make room for more arriving Grimm. Her cloak was practically gone now._

" _COME ON!" Ruby screamed. Tears burned the back of her eyes and the confident mask she'd held on to slipped as they just stared at her and shuffled. No matter how many times the Grimm had tested her lacking defense, they still had yet to truly attack again for the last ten minutes. They should've rushed her by now. Her negative emotions were more than enough incentive to attack her. But they didn't and she was at the end of her rope. Especially now._

 _Fear. Despair. Defeat. Desperation. Misery. The utter pain and agony that assaulted her body. Every emotion on the negative side of the spectrum was a tornado swirling around her heart._

 _But worst of all was the gut wrenching betrayal that consumed her - consumed more than the total exhaustion that caused her grip on what was left of Crescent Rose to slacken and her knees to buckle. Her belly was a mess of cuts, bruises, and bloodstains, but the longest cut wasn't made by the Grimm. Ruby could still feel the cold steel of Weiss' rapier singing as it sliced open her flesh through her depleted Aura._

" _WHY WON'T YOU FIGHT ME!?" Ruby screamed at the nonsensical Grimm. But it was a good thing, she supposed. Even if she dared not to hope, she only had to last until help got there. Until Uncle Qrow could get there…_

 _Her screaming seemed to set two of them off. They rushed her and Ruby tiredly met them. Even as her muscles felt as if they were dying, she tiredly kicked Crescent Rose up and used the less-powerful-than-usual momentum to twist and perform a perfectly coordinated swing. Crescent Rose's broken blade ripped through the Creeper and Beowulf in a splash of blood. The act wasn't nearly as powerful or clean as it used to be. The swing caused Ruby to teeter off balance and fall onto the corpses of the fallen Grimm._

 _Ruby coughed and heaved, blood spilling out of her lips and onto the cold ground. Crescent Rose slipped from her fingers as she curled in on herself. She tried to breathe in, but her chest hurt. The tears behind her eyes let themselves out as she turned her head to the side, only to find herself staring out at a path behind her._

 _It's where they went, after driving a bullet through her leg and leaving her to die._

 _The plan to kill her, as far as Ruby could tell, wasn't premeditated. They took advantage of the dozens of Grimm that had been attracted to Ruby when Weiss and the other fourteen out of sixteen chosen had let out their frustrations that such a dolt could ever be as good as them. Pyrrha, the fifteenth chosen next to Ruby, wasn't part of the argument but she didn't do anything to stop it either. After Weiss used her rapier to try to slash open Ruby's stomach and one of the others shot Ruby's calf a few minutes after the battle started, Ruby watched over a dead Grimm as they retreated into the woods with an unconscious Pyrrha over their shoulder._

 _Black edged her vision now. Ruby could barely pick up her arms but she tried anyway. She managed to get to her knees, her breath wheezing and her stomach forcing the blood she tried to swallow back up her throat. As her stomach drove her blood past her lips and onto the ground, she could only lean and rest her forehead on the cool bone plating of one of the many dead Grimm she'd felled. She was so tired._

" _Why won't you kill me?" Ruby cried, her voice but a hoarse whisper. She picked her head up, glaring at the hundreds of monsters that refused to move in on their weak prey. "TRY HARDER YOU FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT!"_

 _Her father would have washed her mouth out with soap for saying that, if he ever heard her. Yang wouldn't have been much better in the past._

 _Not that Yang cared anymore now._

 _She and Blake had been distant since Ruby had been picked. Blake more so than Yang, but either way Ruby had somehow lost her sister in such a small manner. Yang wasn't sure if Ruby could handle Beacon. Yeah, she'd been invited to Beacon two years early, but was she really ready to be there? Blake had been jealous but Yang had lost faith in Ruby and her abilities - at least according to Yang during a private conversation with their father that Ruby had stumbled upon. Ruby's skills were better than most but Beacon was a class of its own. With all that was happening with the White Fang and Roman Torchwick, Yang thought that Ruby might not be able to handle it._

 _She didn't see the bullying that Ruby had to deal with every day, with Weiss' glares and the shoving in the hallways. The spitballs and the silent treatment that Blake couldn't help but give her. Cardin Winchester with his insults. Some girl she'd never met before knocking her books out of her hands as she was walking to class from lunch. Even Velvet gave her a glare or two in the hallways when she thought Ruby wasn't looking. Yang couldn't tell that the stress came from inside the halls of Beacon, instead of the outside._

 _Ozpin, though a genius in his own right as a Huntsman, didn't make things much better. He was blind to things in his school, and so were the other teachers. They did nothing, if they ever saw anything out of the ordinary. Oh, they were well aware of her stress and declining grades in everything except Combat, Work Shop, and Grimm Studies. They pulled her aside for the last couple of weeks, admonishing her about her declining performances in their classes and telling her that as a picked Intern, she was supposed to be the best and set an example for the rest of Beacon._

 _Ozpin was worse. Ruby set up the excursion for the sixteen to sharpen their skills. Outside of Vale's City limits where the Grimm were large in number and size, they'd be free to go all out with their weapons without fear of hurting one another or any property Professor Goodwitch would have to fix later. Needless to say, Ozpin loved the idea once Ruby explained why. (_ 'Look how well that turned out,' _Ruby thought as she stared down the hordes of Grimm.)_

 _As they talked, Ruby brought her doubts to him, trusted him with her insecurities about why she was picked for the internship. Students had whispered about favoritism from Ozpin, especially after it was revealed that her Uncle Qrow would be mentoring the four freshmen the weeks before the Vytal Festival. He reassured her though. Called her skilled and talented. Driven and focused. That she was a star pupil and someone who would make a fine Huntress after more training. That her experience against people and Grimm were part of the reason she was invited into the school anyway._

'Part of the reason,' _she had realized as she walked away. Curiosity reached her core and turned her right back around. Only to hear him call her a weapon. Some sword to sharpen for some big war she didn't even know about. Her Uncle Qrow was in on it, though he wasn't happy about it. He defended her in his conversation with Ozpin, but Ozpin was adamant. Ruby was going to be the turning point on the war with…_ Salem. _Whoever_ that _was. They were preparing her for a war she wasn't even sure she wanted a part in._

 _Ruby ran without caring if they heard her footsteps in the hallways and she avoided the Headmaster and her uncle for a week until the excursion._

" _COME ON!" Ruby shouted again, breathing as deeply as she could. Her chest hurt and her voice was hoarse. "WHAT KIND OF PANSY-ASS GRIMM ARE YOU!? YOU FUCKERS SCARED OF A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL?! HUH! IS THAT IT?!"_

 _Despair and defeat gave way to rage and defiance. She was tired. Hungry. Her body hurt and wounds of both the emotional and physical nature took their toll on her psyche. Ruby couldn't handle it anymore. After Beacon's betrayal and the hordes of Grimm that fought her to a standstill, she was done being sad. Done mourning things she used to have. Done with being so very_ weak.

 _Why did it have to be this way? She had only ever tried to help people, like her mother. And now, she couldn't even protect herself. Forget about protecting Remnant, she needed to save_ herself _._

 _Tears still streaming down her cheeks, Ruby felt another burning behind her eyes. Power - unadulterated and raw filled her eyes. The Grimm bodies around her began to crumble into stone. Bone plating paled and red markings faded. What was intricate black fur, feathers, and scales turned into simple imitations of stone. Most of them were going to die._

 _As black completely overtook her vision, Ruby let out one last scream._

* * *

 _"Good morning, Vacou!"_ An annoyingly chipper voice greeted. _"I'm Marcus Thatch."_

 _"And I'm Sarah Levy,"_ a female voice rang in. _"And this is Vacou Radio…"_

The rest of the dialogue tuned out of Ruby's head as she opened her eyes to a wooden roof. Her muscles were stiff and sore, bones cracking as she moved. Her back was cushioned and she was covered by a heavy blanket. She was also naked.

Ruby brought her hand to her chest to keep the blanket from falling off of her as she sat up. Warm candlelight lit up the room softly, casting deep shadows but it was enough light to see by. The room was sparse, only having a dresser on the wall opposite to her, a door next it, a window on her left wall, a bedside table which hosted the small Scroll-Radio to her right, and a chair that catty-cornered next to the bedside table. The Scroll-Radio seemed off, being smaller and practically holographic than what she was used to.

 _"... less than hospitable,"_ the man on the radio continued. _"The Grimm made for another try past Mountain Glenn but were quickly stopped by Atlas Military warships with help from Beacon Academy's finest students - including Vytal Festival finalist, Pyrrha Nikos."_

 _"On a less positive note," the woman picked up with a sad tone of voice. "Roman Torchwick has, once again, escaped from Atlas custody. Reports from witnesses say that he had the help of Cinder Fall, who is responsible for many attacks against Vale for the last year. Please note that Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, Cinder Fall's known associates, are still at large. If you see them, please call the proper authorities."_

Ruby looked at the radio in confusion. Year? Roman had only been a big problem for a few months. For as long as he'd been stealing Dust, right? Ruby didn't think that a couple Dust robberies warranted Atlas' attention, no matter how good of friends Ozpin and General Ironwood were.

And who was Cinder? Ruby frowned. The first time she met Roman, he was with a woman who was able to take on Professor Goodwitch before escaping. Then that girl at the Vytal Festival dance that Beacon hosted. That was right before Ruby was picked. Cinder Fall… Wasn't that the name of a Haven student?

Ruby rolled over to the edge of the bed, using the blanket as a over-sized towel as she stood. Her legs wobbled before buckling and sending her down to the floor. Her elbow hit the side of the bedside table, causing her to stifle a yelp and the Scroll-Radio to turn of as it fell to the floor.

Ruby tried to lift herself up on shaking arms when she spotted her arm. Her right arm. The one that was supposed to be broken but now seemed to be in perfect condition minus the numerous scars that stretched up past her elbow and bicep to her shoulder. The longest scar ran from her wrist to her elbow from where her ulna broke her skin, and it was surrounded by smaller scars.

Shakily, Ruby ran a finger down the scar. It was real. She felt it was real. Shivers wracked her body as the hair on her neck raised. It was sensitive, Ruby figured out. The nerves and tissue that made up the raised mess of flesh remembered the hurt and warned her body. She'd gotten plenty of scars during training but the after effects weren't this strong and the scars had faded over time.

Ruby suddenly scrambled, desperately trying to remove the blanket from the front of her body. She hit the bottom of the bed, sending a loud thump through the room. It went ignored as her she ripped the blanket from her stomach and saw the scar there. Perfectly horizontal, it was broken by her bellybutton. The flesh wasn't raised as much as the one on her arm was, as the cut wasn't as deep. If it was, her guts probably would have spilt out.

Her attention tore to her leg as she saw the bullet scar. It was a mess of tan against her pale skin. Other scars - claw and bite marks from the Grimm that had gotten a few good hits in - covered her body, healed but permanent. It wasn't some new cut her Aura could heal into nothing or wasn't able to. It looked like an old scar, her body already convinced that all the healing had been done; convinced that there isn't any need for her Aura to make the scars disappear.

All over her body were scars that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. Little and big, short and long, raised and faded. There was no shortage of the damaged tissue. Her hands roamed her back the best they could, her right hand coming into contact with a scar on her left shoulder that went from the top of her shoulder and curved down along her shoulder blade.

Her thighs held a set of claw marks that went from the top of her hip down to the outer side of her knee. Her right cheek had a small, jagged scar that started in the middle and reach for the corner of her mouth only to jerk back down and over her chin. Her left hand was a mess of cuts, no single scar standing out or completely on its own from the others; a net of scars. She felt rather than saw the scar that split her left eyebrow and ran halfway to her temple.

It rushed to her, right then: _**I'M ALIVE!**_

She survived! She wasn't dead! Ruby hugged herself tightly, tears running unabashedly down her cheeks. Somehow, she survived the hordes of Grimm. And the betrayal of the people she considered friends. Despite her wounds her betrayers and the Grimm had inflicted on her, and the emotional trauma that she had yet to fully acknowledge - she managed to survive everything thrown at her.

But… how? Uncle Qrow? Another professor? Maybe one of the others came back for her!

Ruby shook her head harshly, once again covering herself with the blanket and wrapped her arm across her eyes. The pressure of her arm countered the less-than-joyous tears as they tried to push past her eyelids. Despite the hope that had overtaken her for a moment, she doubted that any one of those no-good backstabbers would have gone back for her. With as many Grimm as there were, it was a suicide mission for any of them to come back - if any of them regretted leaving her there to die.

A squeaking sound brought Ruby looking towards the door as instincts took over and she rolled into a crouch. Her hand automatically reached to her back, where she usually kept Crescent Rose only to grab empty air. Silver irises met a pair of brown wide eyes belonging to a small child Ruby had never seen before. The little boy's pajamas was a sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of bottoms with matching prints of sharks. His brown hair was a mess, like he had just woken up, and his pale skin had lines on them from sleeping on crinkles - from clothes, blankets, or his pillow, Ruby didn't know.

After a second of watching her, Ruby smiled weakly and gave a small wave.

"Hey there," her voice croaked. Only now when she tried to speak did she feel the dryness in her throat. Like she hadn't drank anything in a couple hours.

The boy's eyes widened further before he sprinted out from the doorframe yelling at the top of his voice. "Mom! Mom! She's up, she's up! Mom!"

Ruby struggled to her feet, legs still shaking under her weight. She pushed on though, crawling over to the opposite wall and used it to hold herself up. Smells, pungent and sharp, made Ruby cringe back. She had no idea what they were, but it made her salivate. She wasn't hungry either, but she was practically drooling at the smell that wafted into her nose. Ruby ignored it and opened the door instead.

She was on an upper floor. A staircase that led down was to her left and the hallway was short. Four doors lined the right and a fifth door was at the end of the hall opposite to her. The third door was open and light spilled out into the hallway. Before she could even step out of the doorframe, a woman was running out of the open room as she put on a robe.

The brunette woman stopped with wide eyes and her hands slowed as she tied her robe closed. The woman had skin the color of mocha, her green eyes zipping over Ruby's features and her cat ears twitched.

Ruby's eyes scrunched in confusion.

"Who are you?" Ruby rasped.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two -

* * *

The cup of cocoa warmed her hands as her fingers clenched around the mug. Ruby fidgeted under the gaze of the woman in the robe. After the woman had snapped out of her shock, she's shepherded Ruby into another room and into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Now they were downstairs, the woman staring at her with wide eyes as Ruby tried not to shiver as cold air brushed against the sensitive scars on her legs and arms. Ruby hadn't seen the kid again but that was the last thing on her mind.

"I'm sorry," the woman said. "It's just… I'm sorry. My name is Sarah."

"Ruby." She sipped the cocoa carefully and nearly moaned as it went down her throat, her tongue covered with the taste of chocolate. If only she had some cookies.

"Ruby," the woman repeated. She gave a hesitant smile but Ruby could barely glance at her. Instead, she took a look around the kitchen. The room was nice. A window overlooked the stainless steel sink which was set to the left of a door. The walls were covered in cabinets that surrounded the small round table she and Sarah were on and doorways to other parts of the house Ruby had only had a few glimpses of when she had been ushered down the stairs into the kitchen.

"Where am I?" Ruby asked. Lightly tracing the scars on her hands, she waited for the answer from the woman in front of her.

"Sierra," the woman told her. At Ruby's blank stare, she added, "Vacou."

"Vacou?" Ruby asked incredulously. "Ho-" Ruby cut herself off with a cough and wiped her eyes before the tears could escape. "How? How did I get here?"

Sarah took a sip of her own drink - coffee, Ruby remembered - before she answered. "A handful of guards found you a couple miles outside of the town limits. You were unconscious and barely breathing. They brought you to me as I'm the closest thing to a doctor here. Seventy five percent of your body is covered in scars. X-rays showed that you have deep inside scarring, too, around your throat and ribs. You've been unconscious since they brought you in. Until tonight, at least."

Her head was spinning as she realized that it wasn't Uncle Qrow that had saved her. It wasn't any of the professors, her sister, or her betrayers. She was found by some random town guards. She would have been in the Beacon infirmary or back home in Patch with her father if any of Beacon's Huntsman or Huntsman-in-Training had saved her from the hordes of Grimm. But no. Ruby was in Vacou, in some settlement, in some doctor's kitchen.

"How long was I asleep?" Ruby asked quietly.

"Two months," Sarah said just as quietly. "You were brought in two months ago and haven't woken up."

"'Till now," Ruby continued in a whisper. "Two - Two months?" Sarah nodded even when Ruby wasn't sure she had directed towards her. Suddenly, the tears that Ruby had wiped away earlier came back with a vengeance. They streamed down her cheeks as she broke down sobbing. Hiccups erupted from her throat and her hands unwound themselves from her mug and held each other close to her chest as she curled in on herself.

Pain - stark, emotional hurt - erupted in the middle of her chest. It was almost a physical pain; the thought of her friends that betrayed her, the Grimm that had tortured her with their onslaught, and the knowledge that not only did her uncle not save her but she was also in a settlement in Vacou where strangers had found her, caused her chest to tighten until she could hardly breathe.

Ruby felt Sarah's arms wrapped around her shoulders and she turned to the comfort that the woman had offered. Her anger that kept her alive through the Onslaught after her betrayal had suddenly vanished into the deep depths of her mind, allowing the sorrow to come to the forefront and letting the tears that hadn't been able to spill during the Onslaught flow down her cheeks.

All the while Sarah held her. The doctor stroked her hair without saying a word as Ruby unloaded her hurt into Sarah's shoulder. Ruby wasn't sure how long she'd spent in Sarah's arms. But before long, she had shed all her tears and she was letting out small hiccups.

Without the sharp emotional pain making her head cloudy, Ruby could think straight. With the burst of clarity, questions started to form. The expedition site Ozpin had chosen for them was still in Vale a hundred miles southeast of Beacon, so how did she get in Vacou? Better yet, wasn't anyone looking for her? Ruby knew Uncle Qrow wouldn't stop looking until he saw proof she was dead, like he did with her mother, Summer. And others? Weren't they looking? Beacon had to have some kind of policy regarding missing students. Would Ozpin stop the search just after two months?

What about her scars? These, Ruby reflected as she caressed the spider web of torn and healed tissue on her left hand with her undamaged right, had gone through natural healing. That took _months_ , if not years, to heal properly without Aura. So why are the wounds she sustained during the Onslaught nothing more than sensitive skin? Two months was not enough time for her to heal properly from an attack like that - even if Aura had helped her.

How long had she been asleep before those guards found her? Between where the Onslaught happened to Vacou were still several hundred miles of Grimm infested forests. It would have taken weeks to walk all that way to Vacou - not to mention however far into Vacou she was. The question also brought forth another, more important one: Who brought her to Vacou? Someone had to have pulled her through those hundreds of miles to Vacou while she was unconscious, but who? Why? And why leave her there in the middle of the woods so some random squadron of guards to find her?

Her eyes clouded over as something flashed through her mind:

 _Watching her legs as they were dragged through the foliage of a forest. The light of a broken moon glinting off of rocks in an otherwise dark night. Snow that fell lightly and a shattered sweetheart just a few feet away._

 _A Beowulf, meeting her eyes as Ruby drowned in liquid darkness._

Ruby rubbed her eyes and shook her head slightly, wanting the ridiculous dream out of her head. Sarah had left her when Ruby's sobs began to taper off, though Ruby had to force herself to keep from grabbing the doctor and using her like a teddy bear. Like she would Crescent Rose when she was scared or hurting. The woman came back within seconds though, setting something on the table with a thunk. Ruby glanced at it and had to hold in a gasp.

It was her clothes - or what was left of them after the Onslaught. What drew her attention was her hood. The fabric was torn in so many places from the hood down, the hem of the garment frayed and gone. The hood itself was the only part that wasn't completely destroyed, though the edge and lining showed years of unforgiving wear. Her clothes on the other hand were a different story. Like they had been at the end of the Onslaught, they could barely be called scraps. Most of the shirt and combat skirt were missing and her leggings were threads. Her combat boots were the only things at least halfway whole - the only wear being the soles and tread that were rubbed away by Ruby using her Semblance so much before it was broken completely.

Ruby hesitantly reached out for her hood, fingers trembling as she finally touched it. She had loved it as soon as she had gotten it. It was the last gift Ruby had ever gotten from her mother. Her mind stuttered and skipped.

" _What's this?" Ruby asked her Uncle Qrow as he handed her a wrapped gift. She was ten, having just finished a training session with her new weapon Crescent Rose. For the first time since she made the weapon, she had finally gotten through training without a single scratch on her. She could finally use her weapon without a mistake in her form. After she finished wiping the sweat from her forehead, her uncle - who'd been quiet since he'd seen her perform her exercise flawlessly - had handed her a badly wrapped package._

" _A long time ago," Uncle Qrow said, "you're mother gave this to me for safe keeping. As a gift to you." Ruby couldn't keep her eyes on the red wrapping in her hands as her eyes filled with tears, so she looked to her uncle. "I promised her that I would give that to you when you were ready. And now you are. The way you just handled Crescent Rose…" Qrow stopped and took a sip from his flask._

" _Mom got this for me?" Ruby asked, wide eyes switching from her uncle to the package._

" _Yeah, kid," Qrow told her. "It's from Summer. Something special she wanted you to have when you were ready. She wasn't sure if you wanted to be a Huntress, but when you were super little, you were already running around pretending to be your mother's partner." He broke off, clear to Ruby that he was thinking of his sister and Yang's mom, Raven. "She made this for you… And made me promise that I would give it to you when you were older. And I think you're ready to have it. Go on, kid, open it."_

 _A beautiful ruby red cloak spilled out from the wrappings. The inside was a darker red, possibly just from the shadows, and it was taller than her. The coattails dragged along the grass and the hood's hem went past her nose when she put it on. It was warm, soft. Tears gathered in her eyes as she smelled the warm scent of her mother's chocolate chip cookies - something she hadn't smelled in years._

The cookie smell was gone now. The fact caused silent tears to fall as she pulled the last gift her mother gave her to her face. The gift that was now torn and shredded by the same kind of creatures that killed her. It smelled of blood and death, Grimm and Dust, and had the slight smell of something… different.

For the second, Ruby forced herself to swallow the saliva that pooled underneath her tongue. She pulled the hood away from her face and looked to the woman who had taken care of her for two months. Sarah was watching her with gentle eyes and Ruby couldn't gather the energy to be embarrassed about her losing it in front of a stranger.

"You were found in those," Sarah whispered. "Barely breathing; hanging onto life by a thread… I saved these, just in case you woke up. It didn't seem like you would, for a while."

"How did they find me?" Ruby asked with a scrunch of her brow.

"Grimm," Sarah said shortly. "One of the guards told me that they followed some Grimm that had wandered too close to the wall. Beowolves, I think." Ruby blinked at her before shaking off the image of her sweetheart being held in a Beowulf maw.

Sarah was silent for a moment. "Could you…" Sarah stopped for a moment. "Do you remember what happened?"

 _Yelling. Glares. Growls._

 _The cold blade. Her hot stomach. A gunshot in her ears._

 _Desperate anger. Betrayal and burning muscles. Fighting and breaking bones._

 _The Onslaught. Black overtaking her vision as she screamed._

"Yes," Ruby hoarsely whispered, angrily. "I remember _everything._ " Sarah stepped back as Ruby shoved the chair back from the table. Ruby was breathing harshly again. The thoughts that she hadn't been able to think while surviving the Onslaught suddenly crashed into her head. Ruby's Aura glowed around her feet as she started to use her Semblance while pacing. Red rose petals swirled around the room as Ruby crossed the room back and forth.

' _Why did they do this?'_ Ruby thought. Anger swirled in the bottom of her stomach and forced its way up her throat. ' _What had I ever done to them?! I was their friend! So what I'm younger?! What happened, Weiss? I was your partner! I was your friend! What the hell did I ever do to you?!_ _**They tried to kill me!**_ _**They LEFT ME TO DIE!'**_

Ruby stopped long enough to kick a chair that broke into splinters against Sarah's kitchen wall. A dent the size of her head rested above the pieces of the chair while black and red rose petals dissipated into nothing before they could touch the ground. There were no tears of frustration and anger. There was only rage. Unyielding rage at those who had betrayed her.

"Who did?" Sarah asked before Ruby could continue her pacing. Ruby looked to her, startled. Did she say that out loud? She didn't remember yelling. Didn't remember saying a thing to Sarah about what had happened. Ruby opened her mouth to answer before Sarah gave a sharp gasp and the woman's hands flew to her mouth in an attempt to smother it.

"You're Ruby Rose!" Sarah exclaimed with a little point of her finger.

"How do you know my name?" Ruby asked with a frown.

"How could I not?" Sarah asked. "You're a hero! You held off dozens of Grimm so fifteen students could go get help! When Beacon got to where you were, there wasn't any sign of you -" Sarah broke off then, and Ruby could see it in her eyes that the doctor had figured it out. Though Ruby had no reason to feel it, shame bubbled up beneath the anger and betrayal swirling in her stomach. She shouldn't have felt it; it was irrational! She was the one who was wronged! They sliced her stomach open, put a bullet in her leg, and left her to the mercy of hordes of Grimm! She was the… victim…

' _They made me a victim.'_

Ruby tried to keep the tears that fell from her cheeks. But Sarah's look of horror was enough to let them do as they pleased. They streaked down her cheeks and started coming faster and faster. She didn't sob. She didn't make a sound. Ruby could only close her eyes and tuck her chin to her chest and collapse to the floor. Sarah rushed to her, stroking her hair for a second time. She tucked her right arm to her stomach, across the scar caused by Weiss' rapier while the other hand clamped to her calf over where the bullet had struck her.

"I'm so sorry," Sarah was whispering in Ruby's ear. They were rocking now; back and forth like Ruby was some kind of baby. Like Summer had done when Ruby had a nightmare when she was little. Now, Ruby didn't have anyone.

Sarah was still apologizing when Ruby couldn't let out anymore tears. She didn't have anymore left. The anger was still there, a swirling tornado of rage and frustration that blended perfectly with the betrayal and dismay brought up to the surface. But it was on the back burner now.

"I'm sorry about your chair," Ruby whispered as the guilt welled up in her.

"Don't you worry about that," Sarah told her. They pushed up off the floor and Sarah settled her into a chair that wasn't broken. "Do you… Do you want to talk about it?"

Ruby shook her head. Did she want to talk about the betrayal? The humiliation of being so thoroughly hated that they left her suffer dozens of Grimm alone with only her scythe? The desperate anger and rage that only kept her alive for so long before she fell unconscious due to blood loss? Of course not!

But then she nodded and the words spilled out of her.

* * *

"It started with the Beacon Internship," Ruby began quietly. Her hands were wrapped around her mug of cocoa again, though it wasn't hot. Sarah sat closer this time and her hands were on the table as she gripped her own mug. "Four students from each grade were selected to learn under a prestigious Huntsman or Huntress together. They would train all sixteen students until a few weeks after the Vytal Festival. It was a chance in a lifetime opportunity and I was picked as one of the Freshmen Interns.

"The others didn't like that."

Ruby took a deep breath before starting again. "It started as little things at first. Looks in the hall or a spitball in class… But it got worse. They would call me 'kid' or 'crybaby' as they passed me in the halls. They would glare at me. Call me a teacher's pet just because I was younger and was accepted into Beacond early." Ruby sniffed.

"And then," Ruby said, "Ozpin told us the names of the Huntsman we freshmen would be studying under: My Uncle Qrow. They hated me even more after that. Whispered about me in the halls about how Ozpin was playing favorites and how the only reason I got into Beacon was because Ozpin and my uncle are friends. They started calling me meaner names; said I was a slut and a bitch.

"I came up with the Expedition idea," Ruby told Sarah. The doctor looked horrified at her treatment and Ruby wondered if she truly cared. Ruby knew how two-faced snakes could be; she was the partner of one, after all. "I thought it would be good if I could just show them that I belonged at Beacon. That I could fight and win. But… before I even could, they just started accusing me. Calling me names and calling me a child. That I shouldn't have been accepted into Beacon in the first place because I was disgrace to the name of such a prestigious school." Ruby snorted, her view on Ozpin and Glynda souring the sweet taste 'Ruby Rose, Beacon Student' used to have on her tongue.

"The Grimm came later." Ruby rubbed her throat before putting her hand back on her mug, trying to keep herself from falling apart again and to keep talking. It felt good to let it all out and she wasn't done yet. "There were dozens of them before we finally noticed," Ruby whispered, going back to when the Onslaught first started. "We started fighting as they came out of the woods - all kinds of Grimm. But they weren't attracted to any of them like they were me. My own friends were telling me that I was disgrace, that I didn't belong with them just because I was younger. My partner, Weiss, agreed with them. The only one who didn't say a thing was Pyrrha, and it was probably because she's too fucking nice to be mean. So my emotions were worse and the Grim could smell it.

"Weiss told me she had a plan." Removing her hands and wrapping her arms around her stomach, Ruby met Sarah's eyes. "She did. She took her sword, sliced my stomach, and ran with all the others back to where we had been told the my uncle and a couple of the professors were waiting for us to message them in case we needed help." One of her hands left her stomach to clamp on her thigh, wanting to cover the bullet wound that followed. "I tried to get away on my own the way they went but… They shot me in my leg, making sure I couldn't use my Semblance to make a dash for it. And they left me to deal with the Grimm.

"So I fought until I couldn't anymore," Ruby began to finish. "I fought until my legs gave out and my sweetheart broke. I fought so hard… But no one came. Not my Uncle Qrow, not any of the professors, or Huntsmen. And then I woke up here."

Sarah blinked at that. "Are you sure?" She asked. "Ruby, you've been dead for over a year. There's no way…"

"A year?" Ruby asked. "But… No, you said two months! You said I'd been asleep for two months!"

"You've been asleep _here_ for two months," Sarah insisted even as Ruby stood and shook her head. "But Ruby, you've been declared dead for over a year."

* * *

 **And that's it. Chapter Two is all done. Before I go, I just want to answer some things in a couple reviews.**

 **To JackTheSpades: Yes, Salem will be in this story. She is the Big Bad and this isn't a Evil!Ruby story, so they will be butting heads. Not to say that Ruby will be totally good, either.**

 **To lasereye27: I hope it doesn't take months to post either, but I am making these chapters on the fly. I had just finished catching up on Season 6 of RWBY when I posted 'Chapter One' and I am fully prepared to spend my time on this fanfic.**

 **I will also try to make the chapters longer as I go further along in the story and the plot progresses. I'm using Google Docs as my baseline and usually seven pages is my limit for these beginning chapters where I'm setting up everything. Please, do review about what you think of the story and PM me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns that you wish to unload upon me.**

 **Thank you for all the support and I hope that you enjoy**

 **-Scribble.**


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